Comm 552: USC Primary Sources

Unlike secondary sources, which comment on their topics, primary sources are actual documents from the time period, people, and events of the time under consideration. Primary sources can be any number of the following types of materials:

• diaries and correspondence
• photographs and illustrations
• newspaper articles from the time period
• manuscripts
• pamphlets, broadsides, and other ephemera

To search for primary sources, develop a keyword search such as the following--please note that "sources" is a good general search term for primary sources:

• japanese americans and internment and sources
• abolition and pamphlets
• gold rush and diaries
• civil rights and correspondence
• african americans and newspapers and bibliography

For more information on primary sources and how to search for them, please see the Finding Primary Sources Tip Sheet, on this page (right column) or on the Research Help tab.

See also resources under Web Primary Sources, Primary Sources: Historical Newspapers, and Archives

19th Century Masterfile The largest resource for pre-1920 studies, with over 6 million citations online. Search relevant printed index to material from 1800-1899

20th Century African American Poetry

Accessible Archives  USC currently holds several Accessible Archives collections, including:

• African American Newspapers: The 19th Century  This enormous collection of African-American newspapers contains a wealth of information about the cultural life and history during the 1800s, and is rich with first-hand reports of the major events and issues of the day, including the Mexican War, Presidential and congressional addresses, Congressional abstracts, business and commodity markets, the humanities, world travel and religion. They also contain large numbers of early biographies, vital statistics, essays and editorials, poetry and prose, and advertisements all of which embody the African-American experience
• The Civil War Collection  This four-part collection contains:
  • Part I: A Newspaper Perspective, offering the full text of major articles gleaned from over 2,500 issues of The New York Herald, The Charleston Mercury and the Richmond Enquirer, published between November 1, 1860 and April 15, 1865; 
  • Part II: The Soldiers' Perspective, providing an in-depth look at the day-to-day actions of the troops themselves primarily in the form of regimental histories
  • Part III: The Generals' Perspective  These volumes allow a look into the way the battles within the war were fought. Here the emphasis is on strategies and tactics as planned and executed by the commanding officers, with a longer-term view as opposed to daily concerns
  • Part IV: A Midwestern Perspective  This collection consists of seven newspapers published in Indiana between 1855 and 1869

Alternative Press Index Indexes journals covering cultural, economic, political, and social change

American Broadsides and Ephemera, Series I, 1760-1900 (Archive of Americana) Broadsides printed between 1820 and 1900 and ephemera printed between 1760 and 1900

American Drama Plays by American dramatists that chronicle the history and culture of America

American History and Culture Online: Sabin Americana, 1500-1926 This collection contains works about the Americas published throughout the world from 1500 to the early 1900's, including books, pamphlets, serials and other documents that provide original accounts of exploration, trade, colonialism, slavery and abolition, the western movement, Native Americans, military actions and much more

American History in Video  This database provides access to commercial and governmental newsreels, archival footage, public affairs footage, and important documentaries

American Periodicals Series Online, 1740-1900 Includes digitized images of the pages of American magazines and journals published from colonial days to the dawn of the 20th century. Titles range from Godey's Lady's Book to Benjamin Franklin's General Magazine and America's first scientific journal, Medical Repository; popular magazines such as Vanity Fair and Ladies' Home Journal; regional and niche publications; and groundbreaking journals like The Dial, Puck, and McClure's.Choose Interdisciplinary--APS Online from the Databases list

American Poetry, 1600-1900 Over 40,000 poems by more than 200 American poets from the Colonial Period to the early twentieth century

ArtStor  Provides access to nearly a million images in the areas of art, architecture, the humanities, and social sciences

C19: The Nineteenth Century Index Draws on indexes such as the Nineteenth Century Short Title Catalogue, The Wellesley Index, Poole's Index and Periodicals Index Online to create integrated bibliographic coverage of over 1.4 million books and official publications, 64,891 archival collections and 15.6 million articles from over 2,500 journals, magazines and newspapers

Canadian Poetry Full text of over 12,000 poems by Canadian poets

Confidential Print, North America  This series, issued from the National Archives, Kew (London) provides access to confidential papers issued by the British Foreign and Colonial Offices from 1924 to 1961 concerning North America, with a focus on Canada, the Caribbean, and the US

Digital National Security Archive Full text US government documents related to international issues and crises

Early American Imprints, Series I: Evans, 1639-1800 (Archive of Americana) Resource for information about every aspect of life in 17th- and 18th-century America.

Early American Imprints, Series II: Shaw-Shoemaker, 1801-1819 (Archive of Americana) Provides a comprehensive set of American books, pamphlets and broadsides published in the early part of the 19th century.

Early Encounters in North America: Peoples, Cultures and the Environment This resource contains nearly 1500 authors and over 100,000 pages of letters, diaries, memoirs, and accounts of early encounters

Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO) One of the largest resources of rare materials ever collected in microfilm or electronic formats, including holdings holdings of the British Library, as well as those from more than 1,500 university, private and public libraries worldwide

Ethnic NewsWatch Provides access to full text from newspapers, magazines, and journals from a diversity of viewpoints not seen in the mainstream media. Choose Interdisciplinary--Ethnic Newswatch under "Databases"

Everyday Life and Women in America Online, c. 1820-1900  This collection documents in compelling detail the social and cultural forces that shaped the everyday lives of men and women in America from 1800 to 1920, addressing 19th and early 20th century political, social and gender issues, religion, race, education, employment, marriage, sexuality, home life, health and popular pastimes

Gerritsen Collection: Women's History Online, 1543-1945 Contains more than 4,700 publications from continental Europe, the U.S., the United Kingdom, Canada, and New Zealand, dating from 1543-1945; the broad scope of the collection allows scholars to trace the evolution of feminism within a single country, as well as the impact of one country's movement on those of the others

Godey's Lady's Book  Key 19th-century publication geared to women

Harpweek Contains scanned images of Harper's Weekly, a prominent 19th-century American magazine. The database currently has all issues from 1857-1912, covering the Civil War, Reconstruction, and Gilded Age periods

History Resource Center U.S. Provides integrated access to over 4,000 historical (primary) documents, articles from more than 30 reference titles, and over 110 full-text journal covering themes, events, individuals and periods in U.S. history from pre-Colonial times to the present

Images of America: A History of American Life in Images and Texts  This resource, cultivated from Arcadia Publishing's award-winning series of local history books from all over the United States as well as Canada, includes historical images and texts that enable users to explore towns' histories and to compare the histories of various towns, cultures, ethnic groups, architectural features, and more

Latino Literature: Poetry, Drama, and Fiction This resource brings together more than 100,000 pages of poetry, fiction, and drama written in English and Spanish by hundreds of Chicano, Cuban, Puerto Rican, Dominican, and other Latin authors working in the United States

LexisNexis Academic  Database of full text online news, business, financial, legal, medical, biographical, government and domestic and international newspaper resources

LexisNexis Congressional Hearings Digital Collection, 1824-2003 The Library has added Part B, 1980-2003, to its previous holdings. The collection contains the full-text of published and unpublished hearings, including all oral statements, committee questions and discussion, as well as texts of related reports, statistical analyses, correspondence, exhibits and more

Making of Modern Law Combines 19th- and 20th-century legal collections from America and Britain to form the world's most comprehensive full-text collection of Anglo-American legal treatises anywhere, containing more than 21,000 works from casebooks, local practice manuals, form books, works for lay readers, pamphlets, letters, speeches and more

The Nixon Years  These papers from the National Archives, Kew (London) allow scholars and researchers the opportunity to assess the Nixon administration from a British, European and Commonwealth perspective

North American Women's Letters and Diaries, Colonial to 1950 Includes 150,000 pages of diaries and letters from over 1300 women

Noticias en Espanol Full text Spanish-language news of interest to Spanish speakers in the US

Periodicals Archive Online  An archive of hundreds of digitised journals published in the arts, humanities and social sciences, providing researchers with access to more than 200 years of scholarship, spread across a wide variety of subject areas.

Poole's Plus: The Digital Index of the Nineteenth Century American popular periodicals and government information from the 19th century

Slavery, Abolition and Social Justice, 1490-2007  This resource is an important portal for slavery and abolition studies, bringing together documents and collections from libraries and archives across the Atlantic world. Close attention is being given to the varieties of slavery, the legacy of slavery, the social justice perspective and the continued existence of slavery today.

Special Collections  USC's Special Collections offer access to a wide range of primary source material in all formats, including resources of interest to researchers in American Studies and Ethnicity. Special Collections encompass rare books, manuscripts, and archival collections. In addition to housing a high proportion of rare and unique materials, Special Collections also contains many thematic special collections whose individual parts may not be 'valuable' or 'rare', but, as an aggregate, constitute a historically significant body of material. Search Special Collections 

Travel Writing, Spectacle, and World History  This resource brings together hundreds of accounts by women of their travels across the globe from the early 19th century to the late 20th century 

Underground and Independent Comics, Comix, and Graphic Novels     Underground and Independent Comics, Comix, and Graphic Novels is the first ever scholarly, primary source database focusing on adult comic books and graphic novels. Beginning with the first underground comix from the 1960’s to the works of modern sequential artists, this collection will contain more than 75,000 pages of comics and graphic novels, along with 25,000 pages of interviews, criticism, and journal articles that document the continual growth and evolution of this artform

U.S. Congressional Serial Set, 1817-1980  The U.S. Congressional Serial Set, 1817-1980 is a full-text database of key publications of the United States Congress, including documents on the activities of the committees of the House and the Senate (journals, reports, and documents); publications of the executive departments for education, public health, and agriculture, as well as maps and color plates

U.S. Supreme Court Records and Briefs, 1832-1978  Historical records and briefs of the U.S. Supreme Court

Victorian Popular Culture  This database contains a wide range of source material relating to popular entertainment in America, Britain and Europe in the period from 1779 to 1930

Virginia Company Archives  This online project presents those Ferrar Papers which are in Magdalene College, Cambridge; transcripts of those documents that throw light on the Virginia Company of London; and the four volumes of The Records of the Virginia Company of London (Washington, D.C., 1906-35), edited by Susan Myra Kingsbury.

Women and Social Movements in the United States, 1600-2000 Brings together books, images, documents, scholarly essays, commentaries, and bibliographies, documenting the multiplicity of women's activism in public life